Baker Academic

Monday, April 20, 2015

A little bit ago I asked readers of the blog what they considered to be the most overlooked or underrated book on the historical Jesus. I was pretty intrigued by some of the answers. As I mentioned on that post, though, I had wondered about this because of a particular book that I don't think gets the attention that it probably deserves. I confess that I'm not quite willing to say that this is the most overlooked or underrated book on the historical Jesus, but it's certainly an overlooked or underrated book on the historical Jesus. That book is Der historische Jesus, edited by Jens Schroeter and Ralph Brucker and published in 2002 in the BZNW monograph series (de Gruyter). The essays are written in English or German and come from some immediately recognizable names in the field (Werner Kelber, Michael Moxter, David du Toit, James Dunn, Jens Schroeter, Christopher Tuckett, David Aune, Joerg Frey, Hermut Loehr, Michael Wolter, Petr Pokorny, Ulrich Luz, and Andreas Lindemann). It's important, though, because this book in many ways prefigured larger shifts in Jesus research that would come after it. Especially the essays from Kelber, Moxter, Dunn, and Schroeter reveal the impact of various forms of postmodern historiography. The essay of du Toit is an overlooked critique of the criterion of dissimilarity. Kelber's essay was published in English elsewhere (initially in a book with John Dominic Crossan and Luke Timothy Johnson and now in his Imprints, Voiceprints, and Footprints of Memory [SBL]) and Schroeter's essay would go on to be included in his Von Jesus zum Neuen Testament (Mohr Siebeck), which is now, of course, thanks to Wayne Coppins, available in English as From Jesus to the New Testament (Baylor University Press). It's certainly not the case that the book was totally ignored, but especially in English-speaking scholarship I'm surprised that it's not had a bigger impact.

That's a good question. That book doesn't exist as far as I know. The closest thing that comes to it is probably Anthony Le Donne's Historical Jesus: What Can We Know and How Can We Know It? or perhaps our co-edited Jesus, Criteria, and the Demise of Authenticity. The former study is more of an introduction to postmodern historiography as it relates to historical Jesus research and the latter focuses specifically on the method of criteria of authenticity and their (in our opinions) very problematic nature. In terms of a general overview, though, I don't think there is one . . . yet.

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Le Donne, Keith, Pitre, Crossley, Jacobi, Rodríguez

James Crossley (PhD, Nottingham) is Professor of Bible, Society, and Politics at St. Mary's University, Twickenham, London. In addition to most things historical Jesus, his interests typically concern Jewish law and the Gospels, the social history of biblical scholarship, and the reception of the Bible in contemporary politics and culture. He is co-executive editor of the Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus.

Christine Jacobi studied protestant theology and art history in Berlin and Heidelberg. She is research associate at the chair of exegesis and theology of the New Testament and apocryphal writings. She completed her dissertation at the Humboldt-University of Berlin in 2014. She is the author of Jesusüberlieferung bei Paulus? Analogien zwischen den echten Paulusbriefen und den synoptischen Evangelien (BZNW 213), Berlin: de Gruyter 2015. Christine Jacobi is a member of the „August-Boeckh-Antikezentrum“ and the „Berliner Arbeitskreis für koptisch-gnostische Schriften“.

Chris Keith (PhD, Edinburgh) is Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity and Director of the Centre for the Social-Scientific Study of the Bible at St. Mary’s University, Twickenham, London.

Anthony Le Donne (PhD, Durham) is Associate Professor of New Testament at United Theological Seminary. He is the author/editor of seven books. He is the co-founder of the Jewish-Christian Dialogue and Sacred Texts Consultation and the co-executive editor of the Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus.

Brant Pitre (PhD, University of Notre Dame) is Professor of Sacred Scripture at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. Among other works, he is the author of Jesus, the Tribulation, and the End of the Exile (Mohr-Siebeck/Baker Academic, 2005), and Jesus and the Last Supper (Eerdmans, 2015). He is particularly interested in the relationship between Jesus, Second Temple Judaism, and Christian origins.

Rafael Rodríguez (PhD, Sheffield) is Professor of New Testament at Johnson University. He has published a number of books and essays on social memory theory, oral tradition, the Jesus tradition, and the historical Jesus, as well as on Paul and Pauline tradition. He also serves as co-chair of the Bible in Ancient and Modern Media section of the Society of Biblical Literature.

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Jesus and the Last Supper

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Structuring Early Christian Memory: Jesus in Tradition, Performance and Text